Render the audio seperately as AC3 or PCM (people usually use AC3).

Hey,

I have the same problem. I render sometimes upto 10 different VV5 projects to MPG in VV5, then once the DVDA project is complete, I find that it's too big for a 4.5GB disk.

I then have to re-render one of the VV5 projects to re-compress it to a smaller size, but, annoyingly, this has to happen "after" the DVDA project is complete.

I just wish you could choose one or more of the imported media while in DVDA, to have DVDA re-render with settings which would make the whole project fit on the media!

Sonic74 -- to amplify a little on ScottW's advice, which is very good, here's what's happening:

The template that you're using is intended to render without audio. Your checking the "include audio" box results in mpeg audio being written to your rendered mpeg file. Some DVD burning software and some DVD players will allow you to use mpeg audio, but DVDA will not. That's why it insists upon re-rendering the audio.

As ScottW pointed out, a good choice is to render twice from Vegas -- once for the MPEG22 video and once for AC-3 audio. You'll find that the AC-3 render is very quick, compared to the time it takes to render your video.

You can take a little of the pain out of this by rendering the AC-3 first. You can wait for it to finish or return a few minutes later when it's done. When you select "Render" again, click on the name of the AC-3 file that you just created, then go down to the filetype box and change it to Main Concept MPEG2. That way, you'll automatically have the same filename for your MPEG file that you had for your AC-3 file, without having to type it. When you create your project in DVDA it will recognize and import both files when you select the mpeg filename.

Somewhere, there may be a script that would automate the render process, but I haven't run across it...

thief --

"I just wish you could choose one or more of the imported media while in DVDA, to have DVDA re-render with settings which would make the whole project fit on the media!"


You can do just that. When you go to "Optimize", select the media that you wist to re-render. In the right-hand pane, you'll be able to set "Recompress" to "Yes", and specify a bitrate to reduce the size of the file for the selected media. Sorry that I can't be more specific with terminology -- I'm not at my video computer at the moment...

As JetDV recommended, using a bitrate calculator before rendering from Vegas will help you avoid recompression much of the time. In time, you'll get a feel for how much you'll need for menu overhead, etc.

Thank you everyone for your replies - cbrillow, that's the most helpful, thanks for elaborating, since I'm relatively new to this. I was not 100% certain how to separately import audio and video into DVDA (I'm still not) and match them up - and was afraid of the audio drifting if I were to do it that way, which is why I thought it might be better to just keep it all together from the get go. But I guess you've had success doing it this way?

You do have to separately bring the audio and video in DVDA if you render them separately from Vegas, right?

Oh, wait, duh - are you sayig that if I select the MPEG2 file, DVDA will automatically bring the AC3 of the same name with it? Now, that seems way too easy...;)

Yup -- that's correct. If your MPEG-2 & AC-3 files have identical filenames exclusive of the extensions, selecting just the MPEG file will result in their both being opened in your DVDA project.

And, yes -- many of us here on the forum use this "dual render" technique without it causing A/V sync slippage. I'd venture to say that most programs that seemingly build the DVD files "in one step" are really doing separate steps or passes without the user realizing it. The main difference is, you're more involved by initiating the separate processes yourself, so you're more aware of it.

And, btw -- my face is red. After making the comment about not having seen a script, I find out that there's one called "Batch Render" as part of the standard Vegas load. Handy, but it requires just about as much selection and input as if you performed both renders the 'old fashioned' way.

Good luck and have fun!

And, btw -- my face is red. After making the comment about not having seen a script,

There are actually MANY such scripts that perform this task - many that are free (most of which can be found on the VASST download site) and a few that cost such as BatchRender Pro, the VeggieToolkit, and even Neon can perform this task.

Great stuff - thanks for the help!

WOW good info here. Question. Does the AC-3 render program come with VMS or do I need to purchase it separately? If so, recommendatios?
Thanks
Billy

The "Studio" products DO NOT support scripting. You need Vegas 5 for that.

To be shure, that rendered files will not bigger than DVD-R capacity, you must use DVD Bitrate Calculator.
The most powerful (and FREE) at http://www.videoproductions.com.au/dvd-lab/BitCalc110.zip

So, rendering full uncompressed AVI files is a waste of time? I've been doing that and then using the AVIs in DVDA2.

So glad I found this thread. Will be sure to use MPG2 and AC3 from vegas instead now.